Sprinkled all night, but the ground was still dry. It started raining harder about mid-morning. We slept until 7:30 and then assembled a big breakfast of eggs, sausage, and potatoes.

After breakfast, I was sitting in the tent putting in my contact lenses and the rain was noisy on the tent fly, I heard singing but couldn't make out the words. Sounded like an old spiritual chant...either native or voyageur. A very eerie feeling swept over me as the history of this area just poured into my soul. I laughed when I later found out it was a boy scout group singing the chorus to "Yellow Submarine" by the Beatles over and over again to keep up their spirits as they paddled in the rain.

We met the group at the portage from Cherry to Hansen where they had been waiting for 35 minutes for 2 other groups coming into Topaz to complete the portage. They had even gotten out to help the other groups. They asked if we were fast at portaging and when we replied that we single portage, they offered to let us go first. Very nice group. Not knowing anything about this portage, we leapt from the boat and set off at a brisk pace. Yikes! Should have let the young guns go first. This portage was STRAIGHT UP and up and up and up. The scouts caught us pretty quickly as we gasped for air on the climb. One of the boys joked it was the stairway to heaven (or maybe hell I muttered under my breath).

Stew got pretty winded carrying the canoe and pack basket, so at the top we switched the canoe to me. The second half went down, down, down and was slippery in the rain...one of the scouts wiped out pretty hard, but was unhurt. The springiness of youth!

Today was the first day worth trying out my new Enlightened Equipment raincoat. Wow! I have never worn such a comfortable rain jacket. Very lightweight and incredibly breathable. I stayed bone dry even with portaging. Stew discovered his new wind jacket that he thought was also waterproof (I tried to cast doubt before the trip) was definitely not waterproof so he just wore his wool shirt under it.

The next portage into SAK had some climbing but was much easier in general including some sections of sandy path with no rocks. Unfortunately, a canoe coming the other direction almost ran into Stew. They were both going around a super tight, blind corner. Stew stopped, but the other guy didn't see him. Stew had to yell, "Stop! Stop!" and then had to step to the side. But Stew didn't realize he was standing in a trough and ended up having to drop the canoe.

Easy paddle on SAK and we stopped on a little island to eat some lunch on the rocks. After lunch, we portaged over to Eddy Lake. Plenty of scouts playing in the falls, but Eddy Lake was empty. We set up camp and then at about 5:30 we went over to visit the falls. By then, everyone else had left so we enjoyed it by ourselves. We had a late dinner of pasta salad with lemon mousse for dessert.

Distance: 8.5 miles Portages: 265 rods Time: 3.5 hours including 1/2 hour lunch

~Topaz Lake, Cherry Lake, Hanson Lake, South Arm Knife Lake, Eddy Lake